Add water to secondary?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jayselle

New Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2007
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
The only container I had available for primary fermentation was a 6.5 gallon carboy. I made Cheese's caramel cream ale. After moving to primary I think I am around a quart or so short of 5 gallons but maybe more. When I transfer this to a secondary carboy can I add some additional water? The OG was 1.6.
 
You *could*...but all you would be doing was watering down your beer. You lose a little beer during transfers and evaporation and such. I wouldn't worry about it at all and I definitely would not add any water.
 
do you guys start with 5 gal or 5.5? I recently found out about starting with 5.5 in anticipation of losing about half a gallon. i suppose you'd have to start with more malt though, to maintain the correct OG
 
I recently transfered our Irish Pale Ale to secondary, we added some Irish Creme Syrup to it (experimental) however we were down 1/2 gallon, I used 1/2 gallon to boil the Syrup and it brought us back up to 5 gals...
 
I aim for 5.25 to 5.5 gallons at the end of the boil and never add water to the cleaning tank. I top off wines and meads in the secondary, but never beer.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top